Car seal



Oct. 23, 1928.

L. Q. MOORE CAR SEAL Filed Nov. 12, 1926 shackle projects.

Patented Oct. 23, 1928.

UNITED STATES LOU Q. MOORE, OF

CAR

Application filed November This invention relates to improvements in seals designed for sealing railway freight cars and other containers such as boxes, crates and the like.

A seal of this kind is shown and described in my pending application Serial No. 130,261, liled Aug. 19, 1926, and an obj ect of the present invention is to reduce the cost of manufacture of the seal shown in that application without detracting from the efficiency of the seal as a sure preventative of tan'ipering with the car or other container without detection. In seeking to reduce the cost of production of the present seal the number of parts have been reduced to two, and the operations for forming such parts with the necessary interlockingelements have also been reduced to a minimum.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 shows a portion 01"" a car door with the present seal applied thereto.

Fig. 2 is a sectional View of the locket showing the shackle secured therein.

Fig. 3 is a View showing a slightly modified form of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a top plan View of the locket, the shackle being shown in section.

In the. present seal there are only two parts, a locket 10 and a shackle 11, the latter being adapted to be passed through staples 12 on the container and container closure after which its ends are both locked together permanently within the locket. For locking the ends of the shackle within said locket means are provided 011 or formed integrally with said locket and the ends of the shackle to permanently secure said ends within the locket. In other words, one end of the shackle has an integrally formed locking element adapted to co operate with a locking element "formed in or on the locket for permanently locking the end of the shackle within the locket and the two ends of the shackle are provided with interlockin means for permanently locking the two enc s together within the locket.

In the preferred construction the cooperating elements on one end of the shackle and the locket 10 consists in having one wall of said locket formed with a recess or aperture 13 through which a lug 14 on the end of the The locket is made up of suitable metal by stamping and the manutacturer assembles said locket with the lug 14 locked within the recess 13. In. other words,

PATENT OFFER.

PUEBLO, COLORADO.

SEAL.

12, 1926. SerLal No. 147,899.

the stamping constituting the locket 10 is folded around the end of the shackle carrying the lug 14, so to speak, with said lug proj ecting through aperture 13. In the preferred construction the lug 14 is formedby reversely bending one end 15 ot the shackle 11, the reversely bent portion 16 being son'rewhat longer than the depth of locket 10. At a proper point said reversely bent portion 16 is bent substantially at right angles and then bent back to its normal plane as at 16 to form the lug 14. To con'ipletely close the open end or locket 10, when both shackle ends are lockec therein the extreme end 16 may again be bent inwardly and back upon the portion 16". Not only does this portion 16 aid in completely closing the open end of the locket but it also reduces the space between it and the end 15 of the shackle to a. width less than the length of the lug 14 so that the latter cannot be withdrawn from the aperture 18.

The ends of the shackle also have integrally formed interlocking elements which cooperate to lock the two ends together when the end 17 of the shackle is inserted in the locket, it being understood that this end 17 is not inserted in the locket until after the shackle has passed through the staples 12 on the container to be sealed; Preferably such interlocking elements on the ends of the shackle consist of the reversely bent inturned portion 16 ofshackle end 15 and a reversely bent portion 18 on the end 17 of the shackle. It will be understood that the shackle is formed of some resilient material and due to this resiliency the reversely bent portion 18 normally assumes a position slightly spaced from the end 17 when the end is not within the locket. However, when said end 17 is inserted through the space between end 15 and reversely bent portion 16 of the staple the reversely bent portion 18 will spring behind the reversely bent portion 16 when the ends of those two reversely bent portions pass each other. Reversely bent portion 16 being firm against portion l6 it cannot be compressed to permit reversely bent portion 18 to escape from the locket and, on the other hand, access cannot be had to said reversel bent end 18 to press it toward the end 17 for the purpose of withdrawing it. In this way, both ends of the shackle are firmly and permanently secured within the locket and it will be impossible to gain access to the com tainer without breaking the locket or without breaking the shackle at some point outside of said locket.

It will be readily apparent that the cooperating interlocking elements on the locket and end 15 of the shackle may be varied somewhat. For instance instead of simply stamping an aperture in the locket a recess only could be formed. All that is necessary is to form a shoulder against which the lug 14 will abut, such shoulder being formed in the two instances shown by the upper wall of the aperture 13 and the upper wall of the recess in Fig. 3. Likewise, the lug 14 may be formed I at any desired point so long as it registers with its cooperating locking element formed in the locket. A variation of this nature is shown in Fig. 3 wherein the lug 14 is formed on the end 15 of the shackle instead of on the reversely bent portion 16 of that end.

WVhat I claim is:

1. In a car seal, the combination of a locket having an aperture in one Wall thereof, a shackle adapted to have both of its ends locked within said locket, a lug on said shackle remote from the end thereof adapted to project through the aperture from the locket and cooperating interlocking elements on the two ends of the shackle adapted to permanently engage each other when said ends of the shackle are within said locket.

2. In a car seal, the combination of locket having an aperture in one wall thereof, a shackle having one end thereof reversely bent, said reversely bent portion being offset to form a lug adapted to project through the aperture in the locket wall, and the two ends of the shackle being adapted to abut against each other and be permanently interlocked when said two ends are within the locket.

3. In a car seal, the combination of a locket having an aperture in one wall thereof, a shackle having one end thereof reversely bent, said reversely bent portion having an offset intermediate its ends to form a lug adapted to project in the aperture in the locket wall, said reversely bent portion also having a reverse bend therein and the other end of said shackle being also reversely bent, the two last mentioned reversely bent portions being adapted to abut against each other and be interlocked with one another when the two ends of the shackle are inserted in the locket.

LOU Q. MOORE. 

